Traditionally papers are received from high speed rotary presses after folding by a rotating bucket receptacle sometimes called a "fan" or "star wheel" to reduce the speed of delivery to a transport system, delivering said products in an overlapped or shingled "format" for further processing. This method of delivery has two major faults. The first being that complete control of the product is temporarily lost in respect to alignment. The second fault is the fact that in order for the product to be withdrawn from the fingers of said bucket, it is necessary to bring said product to a complete stop while the fingers of the bucket extricate themselves. This stopped product is then dropped onto a moving belt where it changes its position relative to said belt in relationship to the speed of the press, i.e., in other words, the faster the press runs, the further back the product will fall on said belt in relationship thereto. This makes necessary further expensive retiming or jogging equipment to feed said product accurately onto other online operations, such as mentioned above.
It is, therefore, the objective of this invention to provide a replacement for said buckets with a method of keeping the press product in perfect alignment and time with the press operation regardless of the speed of the press.
To achieve the improved synchronous system, it is necessary to provide an improved rotary timing-speed converter and alignment mechanism which replaces the bucket delivery on rotary presses and thus permitting an even controlled flow of product.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will be found throughout the following description, drawings and claims.